LINGUIST List 10.90

Wed Jan 20 1999

Qs: Lang Attitude, Chinese Phrases, Lang & Genetics

Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <karenlinguistlist.org>

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Dear LL,
I am a student at the University of Vienna English Language Department,
and am currently working on my MA Thesis with the topic "Language
attitudes in the US towards a Southern speech variety". I am therefore
looking for
a) references to very recent language attitude studies (primarily in the
English speaking world) to get a survey of current research trends in
the field as a whole
b) language attitude studies about the South of the USA
c) material on the Southern speech variety from a linguistic point of
view (articles, etc.)
d) material on American regional accents as a whole (the global
situation)
I would be very grateful for any information or references on my
topic(s).
Thank you very much in advance
and greetings from Austria
Barbara Soukup
a9255719unet.univie.ac.at

A non-linguist friend who is, shall we say, enthusiastic about
cross-discipline studies cites with great approval a number of
articles by Robert R. Sokal and colleagues, which supposedly
demonstrate close coincidence between populations as defined
genetically and speech communities, within Europe. Since the only
linguist listed among the colleagues is Merritt Ruhlen, and since none
of the cited articles appear in linguistics journals (most are in
Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci.), I wonder whether this work has been evaluated
both for its specific application to the Europe situation (which seems
anomalous wrt the rest of the world) and for its possible relevance to
other areas.
Thank you. Summary as warranted.
-
Peter T. Daniels
grammatimworldnet.att.net